Systems and method for displaying and categorizing news feed posts

ABSTRACT

Categorizing, colorizing, saving and visually filtering the content and appearance, of a live news feed, within a business or social network. The method involves categorizing information, photos, video and the like, prior to posting it within the live news feed. Each category is associated with a visual indicator so that postings of different categories become distinctive. The live news feed can be viewed in its entirety, by user type, by subject category or a combination of categories. The viewing user may choose categories for limiting information which appears in the live news feed by subject or user type, but may also have the option of viewing all content, which can be visually filtered by color. Users may save information from the central live news feed to their personal pages by choosing from the variety of categories that are also used to filter the live news feed content viewable to them.

This application is the national stage of PCT/CA2012/050036, filed Jan.23, 2012, and claims benefit under 25 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 61/435,026, filed Jan. 21, 2011

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the categorization ofinformation before it is entered or posted into either a central livenews feed or a personal live news feed, wherein each category isrepresented by a pre-determined color or other indicator and a viewinguser can choose to file/store information from a post of interest forlater reference independently of the news feed. The vibrant result islive information presentation within a live news feed that is colorizedor labeled and may be filtered by selection of a category or multiplecategories, making it possible for the user to visually filter theremaining posts to the live news feed by color. The categories ofinformation may further be filtered by the viewing user who may chooseto view all posts or choose to reduce displayed posts by selecting auser type and/or by subject type, from a predetermined category optionlist. The result is live information presentation within a colorizedlive news feed which filters out all remaining subjects and/or users theviewing user has not chosen to view.

Description of Related Art

Conventionally a user of a live news feed receives live news feednotifications of the activities of others who are indicated as friends,within the same social network. The user's friends are a list of peoplethe user has added to their friend list from within the same socialnetwork. The user and their social media friends each have access to thelive news feed of each other, if their privacy settings are set to allowaccess, and so each receives notifications of the others' activities.Their live news feed will also contain updates of information containinglinks to articles they wish to share, photos, videos and typewrittencomments. The live newsfeed content may also consist of updates fromvarious organizations, media and groups the user has chosen to follow.The live news feed is often a single color, or no color, with black texton a white background.

Not Long after social media began using a live news feed, they empoweredthe subject users with the ability to eliminate posts from their livefeed view of a particular friend or group by selecting a ‘remove’ buttonon any post from that individual or group. They also have the option toreverse this change at any time.

User's within social media sites can also visit the social media page ofa friend or group if they wish to see the activities of that individual,however the subject user has the ability to place limitations on theview each of their friends has of their personal social media pagecontent, which includes their live news feed. Users outside of thesubject user's friend list cannot view the subject user's social mediapage unless the subject user has set their security settingsaccordingly, enabling users who are not friends to see their personallive news feed, which is uncommon.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a method forcategorizing, and displaying news feed content in color, within abusiness or social network environment, the method comprising:

-   -   receiving news feed posts associated with respective subject        users, each news feed post having been assigned a category    -   generating a central news feed containing the received news feed        posts;    -   providing viewing access to the central news feed;    -   receiving central news feed viewing preferences from each viewer        of the central news feed; and    -   based on said news feed viewing preferences of each viewer,        determining which of the news feed posts of said central news        feed should be displayed to said viewer based on the category        associated with each news feed post; and    -   displaying to said viewer only the news feed posts of said        central news feed that were not filtered out based on the        viewing preferences of said viewer, wherein each different        category is associated with a different respective color and        each news feed post displayed to said viewer is accordingly        displayed in the respective color associated with the category        of said news feed post.

The category assigned to each news feed post may be a subject mattercategory corresponding to content of said news feed post, where eachsubject matter category is associated with a respective color, and thestep of displaying the news feed posts comprises reproducing eachdisplayed news feed post with the respective color according to thesubject category of said displayed new feed post.

Alternatively, the category assigned to each news feed post may be auser-type category into which the subject user from whom said news feedpost was received has been classified.

The user-type categories may include categories relating to one or moreof languages spoken by the subject users, geographical locations inwhich the subject users reside, occupational positions occupied by thesubject users, educational backgrounds of the subject users, and areasof expertise of the subject users.

The displaying step may comprise displaying a background or text of eachdisplayed news post in the respective color, or outlining a display areaof each displayed news post in the respective color. It will beappreciated however the other ways of displaying color in associationwith a news feed post are contemplated and within the scope of thepresent invention. Another example may involve placement of a square,circle, dot, character or other visual marker of any shape in a cornerof a text-containing area of the post.

The feed viewing preferences of at least one viewer may includeinformation on one or more categories to be filtered out from the newsfeed posts to be displayed to said viewer, or information on one or morecategories to be included in the news feed posts to be displayed to saidviewer.

The method may additionally include receiving responses from viewers tonews feed posts viewed thereby, and updating the central news feed withsaid responses.

The step of receiving the responses and updating the central news feedmay involve adding a user-selected message to the central news feed thatis in response to a particular news feed posting viewed by a viewer andthat is based on a pre-defined response option selected by said viewer.

The step of receiving the responses and updating the central news feedmay involve adding a user-generated message to the central news feedthat is in response to a particular news feed posting viewed by aviewer.

The user-selected or user-generated message is preferably shown inassociation with the particular news feed post

The method may include providing each user with a respective personalnews feed that is populated, at least in part, based on actions taken byusers on the central news feed.

The personal news feed of each user may be viewable by other users.

A news feed post contributed to the central news feed by one of thesubject users may trigger a corresponding post to said subject user'spersonal news feed.

A response message posted to the central news feed by one of theviewer's in response to a particular subject user's news feed post maytrigger the posting of a corresponding post to said subject user'spersonal news feed.

The response message may also triggers the posting of anothercorresponding post to said viewer's personal news feed.

The method may include allowing the viewer to share one of the news feedposts with another party, which triggers the posting of a correspondingpost to said viewer's personal news feed.

The step of displaying the news feed posts of said central news feed maycomprise presenting an option to each viewer to save or file a copy ofany displayed news feed post to another location associated with saidviewer.

The other location may be said viewer's personal news feed, or apersonal web page associated with said viewer within the networkenvironment. In another embodiment, each user's personal news feed isviewable on said user's personal web page, and the other location isseparate from said personal news feed.

Displaying each user's personal news feed may comprise presenting anoption to save a copy of any visible posting in said personal news feedto the other location.

The method may additionally include presenting each user with privacyoptions concerning viewing of content of said user's personal news feedby the other users.

The step of receiving news feed posts from respective subject users maycomprise, for at least one news feed post, receiving instructions toautomatically re-post said news feed post to the central news feed at alater date or time.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided anon-transitory computer readable medium having embodied thereon aprogram, the program being executable by a processor for performing themethod of the first aspect of the invention.

According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a methodfor reviewing categorized and colorized news feed content within abusiness or social network environment, the method comprising:

-   -   gaining access to a business or social network having a central        news feed that contains news feed posts from subject users of        the business or social network, each news feed post having been        assigned a category;    -   submitting central news feed viewing preferences for use in        determining which of the news feed posts of said central news        feed should be displayed based on the category associated with        each news feed post; and    -   viewing a filtered display of the central news feed that        contains only news feed posts of said central news feed that        were not filtered out based on the viewing preferences, wherein        each different category is associated with a different        respective color and each news feed post of the filtered display        is accordingly viewed in the respective color associated with        the category of said news feed post.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a methodfor categorizing and displaying live news feed content, within abusiness or social network, before it is shared and after it is shared,whereby the content is a colorized live news feed categorized by color,which may also be visually filtered. The subject user places theinformation into a category or multiple categories before it is shared.This may include a basic message consisting of text and an attachedvideo link, photos, and the like. Once posted within the live news feedthe information is now attached to a category and that particularcategory is associated with a color. The method further includes optionsavailable to the viewer to view the live news feed in its entirety,choose only the categories they wish to view or they may view all poststo the live news feed and filter the content visually by color. Theviewer also has the option to shut off the color and filter live newsfeed content by using the category filters. There are no existingmethods which limit a viewer's access to the central live news feed.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod for providing convenient repeat access in a business or socialnetwork to information associated with a news feed post after an initialviewing of said news feed post by a viewer, the method comprising:

-   -   receiving news feed posts associated with respective subject        users;    -   generating a news feed containing the received news feed posts;    -   providing viewing access to the news feed by the viewer;    -   presenting the viewer with an option to create a convenient        access tool for later accessing information associated with a        user-selected news feed post of interest to said viewer;    -   in response to an indication from the viewer to create the        convenient access tool, creating said tool and storing same in a        manner accessible to the viewer independently of the news feed.

Creating and storing the convenient access tool may comprise creating afile containing the information associated with the user-selected newsfeed post.

Saving the file may comprise saving the file at a location that isremote from the viewer.

The method may include presenting a file retrieval option on a personalpage of said viewer within the business or social network by which theviewer can later download the file, and additionally or alternativelyinclude a file viewing option on a personal page of said viewer withinthe business or social network by which the viewer can later view thefile.

The information associated with the user-selected news feed post maycomprise text content, image content, video content, or any combinationthereof.

The information associated with the user-selected news feed post maycomprise content from an electronic document that is linked to in saidnews feed post, for example a web page.

As an alternative to creating and storing a file, creating and storingthe convenient access tool may comprise copying a hyperlink from thenews feed post and storing said hyperlink in a manner accessible to theviewer independently of the news feed at a later time.

Said hyperlink may be stored in association with other contents of apersonal page of the viewer within the business or social network, withthe hyperlink being made available at or from said personal page.

The method may include providing access to the information associatedwith the user-selected news feed post via the convenient access toolafter the user-selected news feed post has expired from the news feed.

The method may include creating multiple convenient access tools, eachfor a respective one of multiple user-selected news feed post, andproviding a list of said convenient access tools to said viewer, whereinsaid list is sorted according to categories of the user-selected newsfeed posts.

Sorting the list may comprise sorting the list according toviewer-assigned categories assigned by the viewer.

The method may include presenting the viewer with the option ofassigning said viewer-assigned categories after an earlier applicationof non-viewer-selected categories assigned to the news feed posts beforedisplaying thereof in the news feed.

The method may include applying the viewer-assigned categoriesregardless of whether said viewer-assigned categories match thenon-viewer-selected categories.

According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod for gaining convenient repeat access in a business or socialnetwork to information associated with a news feed post, the methodcomprising:

-   -   viewing a news feed containing news feed posts associated with        respective subject users of the business or social network;    -   selecting a news feed post of interest and selecting an option        to create a convenient access tool for later accessing        information associated with said news feed post of interest; and    -   later accessing said tool independently of the news feed and        employing said tool to viewing the information associated with        said news feed post of interest outside the news feed.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod for categorizing, and displaying news feed content in a news feedgenerated within a business or social network environment, the methodcomprising:

-   -   receiving news feed posts associated with respective subject        users of the business or social network, each news feed post        having been assigned a category    -   generating a central news feed containing the received news feed        posts; and    -   providing viewing access to the central news feed;    -   wherein each different category is associated with a different        respective category indicator and each news feed post displayed        to said viewer is accordingly displayed with the respective        category indicator associated with the category of said news        feed post.

Each category indicator may display a flag of a regional locationassociated with one or more of the subject users.

At least one flag may be a national flag.

The flag may be representative of the nationality of the one or moresubject users.

The flag may be representative of the residence of the one or moresubject users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting.

FIG. 1 illustrates an environment for generating a live feed in abusiness or social network environment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a business or social network provider.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a central live feed engine.

FIG. 3a is a block diagram of a personal live feed engine.

FIG. 4 is a screen shot of one news item displayed to the subject userand the categories which the subject user may choose from prior toposting/sharing information within the central live newsfeed.

FIG. 4a is a screen shot of one or more news items displayed to theviewing user, along with drop down menus of options to filter the livenews feed's content based upon whether the viewing user wishes to view‘all’ posts within the live news feed or filter it further by choosingfrom predetermined categorical options by subject or user type. The dropdown menu in FIG. 4a also allows the viewing user the options to shareor file information within the live news feed.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a process for generating and displaying alive feed in a business or social network environment.

FIG. 6 is a screen shot similar to FIG. 4a , but showing the contents ofa ‘file’ menu by which the viewing user can select to file/save contentsof the post or related information linked thereto.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system and method whereby the content of a live news feed iscategorized by subject, by the subject user, at the time it is added tothe live news feed. Each subject is associated with a color, allowingthe viewing user to filter the live news feed content by visually bycolor or by choosing to filter the news feed by subject, making one ormore categorical choices of subject areas they wish to view. Someexamples of categories by subject are news releases, meetinginvitations, media articles which may contain a link, a video with awritten introduction, product news, business how-to advice or the like.Any subject user 101 b within the Business or Social Network maycontribute a variety of types of information to either their ownPersonal Live Newsfeed 115 or Central Live Newsfeed 110 which mayinclude ‘links’ to information, photographs, videos, documents, a simplemessage, live links to video meetings, invitations and the like.

Each user within the business or social network automatically becomescategorized and defined based upon demographical and personalinformation they provide at the time they create an account or makechanges to their account information. Examples of user types 407 areLanguage, Country, City, Position (within a company or organization) andthe Like. The viewing user 101 a may choose to view all posts, whichwill appear colorized, with each subject assigned its own color. If, forexample, the viewing user would like to see all ‘live meetinginvitations’ but prefers to view only meetings scheduled by Directors,they must make a selection from both categories. The filtered resultwill be a live news feed, in one or more colors, which indicates topDirectors who have posted an active live meeting invitation.

The viewing user also has the option to choose one or more categories bysubject type 409 and may further filter the live news feed by choosingfrom one or more user type 407 options. Any subject user 101 b withinthe Business or Social Network may contribute a variety of types ofinformation to either their own Personal Live Newsfeed 115 or a CentralLive Newsfeed 110 which may include ‘links’ to information, photographs,videos, documents, a simple message, live links to video meetings,invitations and the like.

FIG. 1 illustrates an environment for generating a colorized live newsfeed in a social or business network environment. One or more users,such as users 101 at user devices 102 are coupled to either a businessor social network provider 106 via a network 104. The business or socialnetwork provider 106 may comprise any user or entity that providesbusiness or social networking services, communication services, datingservices, company intranets, and so forth. For example the business orsocial network provider 106 may host a website that allows one or moreusers 101, at one or more user devices 102, to communicate with oneanother via their website. The business or social networking website/web platform offers a first user 101 an opportunity to connect orreconnect with the one or more other users 101 who for example, may workfor the same company, live in the same geographical location as thefirst user 101, have the same language skills, have the same positionwithin a company, etc.

In one instance, a viewing user 101 a associated with a user device 102opens the live news feed page within the business or social networkprovider 106 to view the central live news feed 110 which ‘all’ subjectusers 101 a, 101 b, etc can utilize to post information. Any user 101 inthe social network may view the central live news feed page and becomethe viewing user 101 a for purposes of reviewing the shared live feedpage or become the subject user 101 b, who may be the same user. Eachuser 101 also has access to a Personal Live feed engine 115 where theymay store information of interest. Both the viewing user and subjectuser may save information that is within either their Personal Live NewsFeed or the shared central Live News Feed Page to a set of personalcategorized files accessible from within their Personal or BusinessPage. The files are made up of the same categorical choices offered tothem just prior to posting information to either a personal or centralshared live news feed. All viewing users 101 b have the ability to viewthe personal live feed 115 of all users within the social or businessnetwork however there may be information which has been blocked fromview by the subject user for purposes of personal privacy. The PersonalLive Feed 115 serves as a visual viewpoint of the subject user and alsoserves the purpose of defining the subject user in the eyes of theviewing user.

A central live feed engine 110 is coupled to the business or socialnetwork provider 106. Users create a post of information to the centrallive news feed engine 110. The post will also appear within the subjectuser's personal live news feed 115, located within their Personal orbusiness page. For example, the subject user may want to send a messageto a particular ‘category’ 210 of subject users 101 b, such as the‘French Language’ category or by making a selection of several or moresubject users 101 b. According to some embodiments, the viewing user 101a may be coupled directly via a user device 102 to the live feed engine110 or the Personal Live Feed Engine. According to other embodiments,the live feed engines 115 and 110, comprises a module associated withthe business or social network provider 106.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a diagram of a business or social networkprovider, such as the to business or social network provider 106 shownin FIG. 1, is shown. A Personal or Business Live News Feed database 202is provided for storing data associated with each user, such as the user101 that is associated with user device 102, as an example. When a user101 subscribes to services provided by the business or social networkprovider 106, a user business or personal profile will be generated foruser 101. The user 101 must complete a variety of selections such ascity, country, birth date, gender, first language, second language,company position, and the like, which form some the categories whichbecome stored in the Category Database 210 and continually monitored bythe Monitoring Module 206.

According to some embodiments, the user's personal or business page datais stored in the Personal Profile Newsfeed Database 202 which is createdoutside of the business or social network environment 200 (live newsfeed) and accessed by the business or social network provider 106. Allusers within the business or social network would have the ability toview each other's personal or business profiles within the business orsocial network, based upon the subject user's privacy selections.Alternatively, the Personal or Business Profile Database 202 and theCentral News Feed Database 200 may be located remotely and accessed bythe business or social network provider 106.

The business or social network provider 106 includes a communicationsinterface 204 for communicating with users 101, such as via the userdevice 102 described herein, over the network 104. The user device 102communicates various types of information, such as privacy settingsselections, grouping of other users 101, and so forth, to the socialnetwork provider 106 via the communications interface 204. Any type ofcommunications interface 204 is within the scope of various embodiments.

A monitoring module 206 tracks the subject user's use of the centrallive news feed as well as the user's Personal or Business News FeedDatabase 202, on the business or social networking application. Forexample, the monitoring module 206 can track menu selections made byeach subject user as they enter information into the live news feed 406.It is at this point the user can choose file a copy of their post bysubject where it will be filed chronologically by date and time, andstored in the category database 210. Posts made to the central fivenewsfeed will also automatically appear within each user's 101 personallive news feed chronologically by date and time. Any type of useractivity is tracked or monitored via the monitoring module 206.

A display engine/GUI 208 may also be provided by the business or socialnetwork provider 106. The display engine/GUI 208 displays the one ormore items of media content, profile information, and the like to users101. User 101 can interact with the business or social network provider106 via the display engine/GUI 208. For example, users 101 can selectprivacy settings, access their own user Personal or Business Newsfeed202, access information within the Central News Feed Database 200, andsend it to user 101 via the business or social network provider, and soforth, via the display engine/GUI 208. The live feed on either theCentral News Feed Database 200 or the user's personal live news feed 115may be displayed in a field within the display engine/GUI on 208.

A category database 210 is provided to store individual category dataselections made by each user 101, some of which become defined when eachuser completes their user profile categories upon entering the businessor social network to become a user. The categories, for example, mayspecify that the subject user 101 b holds a particular position within acompany, identify fluent language(s) spoken, indicate a UniversityGraduate, member of a group, or the like.

An activity database 212 is provided for storing individual activitydata about each user 101. The activities may be tracked by themonitoring module 206 and may be stored in the activity database 212.Activity entries in the activity database 210 may include a date andtimestamp of the activity, a link, photos, video, the type of activity,the user 101 initiating the activity, any other users 101 who areobjects of the activity, and the like. Activities may be stored inmultiple databases, including the activity database, the profiledatabase, the category database, or the like.

According to some embodiments, a user 101 within the business or socialnetwork will have answered many categorical questions upon setting up anaccount within the business or social network, which becomes stored inthe Category Database 210. For example, if user 101 indicates his firstlanguage is English and his 2^(nd) language is Spanish, the business ornetwork provider 106 may assign those categories to user 101, which arestored in the category database 210. The user 101 may make additions tothese categories unknowingly, for example by simply adding a 3^(rd)language option of French. Another example of a user category is theusers position/level within a company, education facility, healthcarefacility etc. The user 101 may be described in more than one categoryalong with other users 101, according to exemplary embodiments. A numberof categories will exist to define each user 101 in the business is orsocial network environment. A timestamp or other chronological indiciamay be associated with entries in the category database 210.

According to exemplary embodiments, one or more networks may be providedfor each user 101. For example, user 101 may choose to work, network orbe friends with a group of people comprised of people categorized orgrouped to form members of a team, a network comprised of peoplecategorized by geographical location of residence, a network comprisedof people grouped according to a common education or field of expertise,or the like. Users can then refer to the categories as one of manyoptions to search users for example.

Any type of network may be provided by the business or social networkprovider 106. In other words a network may be comprised of peoplegrouped according to any type of similarity such as a language category,described herein, such as Spanish, geographical location and so forth.User 101 may specify the networks, the categories, the subcategories andso on may which may be predetermined by the social network provider 106.The networks, categories, the subcategories and so forth are meant totrack and present information or data posted by various types of usersor subjects (see 404), which is used to filter out unwanted data,leaving the remaining information more defined and visually categorizedby color.

Although the business or social network provider 106 is described asbeing comprised of various components (the personal or business newsfeeddatabase 202, the communications interface 204, the monitoring module206 the display engine/GUI 208, and the category database 210), fewer ormore components may comprise the social network provider 106 and stillfall within the scope of various embodiments.

The central live feed engine 110 is configured to receive data directlyfrom any subject user 101 b for display to the viewing user 101 a. Boththe subject user and viewing user will have the option to share or saveany post within the central live news feed to their Personal Live FeedEngine 115 or their personal category files 410. The Personal Live Feedengine 115 contains settings which provide the subject user 101 b withthe option of automatically receiving posts from the central live newsfeed 110 to their Personal Live Feed 115 by choosing from a variety ofsubject categories or by randomly selecting posts to share with theirPersonal Live Feed 115 and fellow associates and the like.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the central livefeed engine 110. The central live feed engine 110 includes an activityanalyzer 302, a privacy component 304 and a dynamic list component 306,for determining the activities regarding the subject user 101 b that maybe displayed as news items. The central live feed engine 110 furtherincludes a display order component 308, an informational link component310, an active link component 312, a color component 300 and a mediagenerator 314, for displaying the news items to the viewing user 101 a.

The activity analyzer 302 accesses the one or more user activitiesdetected by the monitoring module 206 and analyzes the one or more useractivities to duplicate the activities of the subject user 101 b and theviewing user 101 a. Activities such as the sharing of a subject user'scentral live news feed posts, commenting on a subject user's live newsfeed post, or the like, will appear in duplicate on the subject user'sPersonal Live News Feed. Optionally the activity analyzer 302 may accessthe one or more activities from the various data bases (e.g., theprofile database 202, the category database 210, the activity database212, and the like). Examples of activities performed by the subject user101 b are posts made to the central live news feed as well as sharingoptions they may have chosen for the post, comments on another subjectuser's post, tracking the comments added to each post to the centrallive news feed which determines the posts which have the most userinterest, RSVP to an event, add a comment to a live feed post, saving alink to a personal file in the Personal Business Page, add a photo tothe live news feed, add a video link to the live news feed, create anevent, manually add a link, and the like. The activities may includefunctions performed by other users 101 relating to the subject user 101b (e.g., a compliment of user 101 a to the subject user's 101 b post,within the Live News Feed page, the subject user 101 b receives apromotion and moves up one level in his company, the subject userreceives a variety of compliments from other users 101 on the companyannouncement, and the like). The activities may also include activitiesoutside the social network, e.g., sharing a link from the central LiveNews Feed with your Facebook and Twitter accounts are associated withthe Personal Live Feed engine 110 and/or the social network provider106.

The privacy component 304 is configured to analyze the privacy settingsof the subject user 101 b and it works to limit the what the viewinguser can see within the subject user's Personal Business Page andPersonal News Feed that the subject user 101 b has elected to notdisplay.

The dynamic list component 306 is configured to limit the number of livenews feed items/posts displayed within the central Live News Feed or thePersonal Business live news feed, according to the timestamp, fordisplay as news items.

The display order component 308 is configured to determine an order forthe display of the news feed items. In some embodiments, the list ofnews items may be sorted according to a timestamp. News feed items thesubject user has chosen to be re-posted at a later time or later dateare configured and formatted by the Re-Post Generator 316. In otherembodiments, the list of news items may be sorted according to theviewing user's categorical choices, if any were made (e.g viewing user'ssubject category preferences, posts which request feedback, notice ofwebinar meetings, and the like), and the subject user priority (e.g., adate and time are applied automatically, and the like).

The informational link component 310 is configured where one or moreinformational links may provide the viewing user 101 a additionalinformation about the subject of the news items. For example, a subjectuser may type a message into the Live News Feed and attach aninformational link to connect the viewing user 101 a to a website whichdisplays an article containing more detailed information on the subject,and the like.

The active link component 312 is configured to provide the viewing user101 a one or more active links to an activity of the subject user 101 b.The active links may enable the viewing user 101 a to participate in theactivity that is the subject of the news item. For example, an activelink may enable the viewing user 101 a to join a meeting that thesubject user 101 b has posted within the live news feed. In variousembodiments, an active link may enable the viewing user 101 a toindicate their attendance, file or save the invitation or simply copy itto their Personal Live News Feed from the Central News Feed.

The media generator 314 is configured to operate to format the activitylist compiled by the activity analyzer 302 and displays the subjectuser's Personal live news feed posts based upon the privacy choices thesubject user has chosen which become limited by the privacy component304, the dynamic list component 306 and the display order component 308.Information posted to the live news feed also has the option to bere-posted at a later date through the re-post generator 316, which sendslive news feed items back to the activity analyzer 302. The mediagenerator 314 is further configured to provide functionality to anylinks attached by the informational link component 310 and/or the activelink component 312. In some embodiments, the media generator component310 provides the display of the news items to the display engine/GUI 208for display to the viewing users 101 a. Alternatively, the mediagenerator 314 displays the live feed news items to the viewing user 101a via the user device 102.

Although both the Personal Live Feed Engine 115 (FIG. 3a ) and theCentral Live Feed Engine 110 (FIG. 3) are described as being comprisedof various components (e.g., the color component 300, the activityanalyzer 302, the privacy component 304, the dynamic list component 306,the display order component 308, the informational link component 310,the active link component 312, the media generator 314 and the re-postgenerator 316), fewer or more components may comprise the Personal LiveFeed Engine 115 and Central Live Feed Engine 110, and still fall withinthe scope of various embodiments.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary screen view of options available to the subjectuser 101 b while posting information to the Central Live News Feed 110.If the subject user 101 b wishes to re-post the same information againwithin the Central Live News Feed, but at a later time, the Re-Post 403option makes it possible to re-distribute the same post at a later timeand date based on a time and date, or length of delay before there-post, selected or inputted by the subject user.

Before a post can be shared, the subject user 101 b is required to applyone or more subject categories 405 to the information being posted, aspart of the filtering process. When the viewing user 101 a chooses aviewing category 404, the categories act as filters and are storedwithin the category database 210. User Type 409 categories are alreadydefined by each user's personal information which identifies them bylanguage, level or position within the company, country, city and thelike, within a business or social network subject user 101 b is definedwithin Categories. It is also stored in the category database 210.Informational links 406 are displayed within the text box 402 (see FIG.4a ) and may be attached to one or more informational posts/news itemsand they may contain additional information about the news item or thelink, which may take the viewing user to a photo album, to view a user'sdocuments, to videos or the like. Both the subject user and viewing usermay choose to share a live news feed post with another business orsocial network, outside of their network, by choosing from the sharingoptions 408 drop down menu. Subject users 101 b may also choose ShareOption 408 to share information from the central live newsfeed and it isthis sharing activity which is then stored in the activity analyzer 302a, then organized within the dynamic list component 306 a before itbecomes duplicated to appear within the subject user's Personal LiveNews Feed 115, as an activity.

In some embodiments, an active link 406 may be attached to one or moreof the news items 402 within the business or social network, as it maybe shared by one or more users. The viewing user 101 a has the option toshare 408 any Live News Feed Post made by subject user 101 b, whetherthe post is within the Central Live News Feed or any Personal Live NewsFeed, within the Business or Social Network or outside of it.

FIG. 4a is an exemplary screen view of the viewing user's view of theCentral Live News Feed, its content and its options. Step 400 indicatesa live news feed post, created by a subject user 101 b. The viewing userhas the option to view the Central Live Feed in its entirety or they mayfilter out information posts by choosing categories 404 by user type 407and by subject type 409. What remains is a colorized live news feed FIG.4a which displays itself in a variety of colors, each color representinga subject type 409, and therefore may be visually and categoricallyfiltered by the viewing user. A search by user type 407 will display acolorful live news feed filled with a variety of subjects, butpertaining to one or more user types. If, for example, subjectcategories such as Live Skype Meeting and Products are chosen along withUser types such as French language and Quebec City are selected, thelive news feed would display in two subject colors and will havefiltered out posts which are not in the French Language and Live SkypeMeetings which originate from Quebec City. In another embodiment, thecolor associated with each post in the news feed may correspond to theuser-type of the subject user who generated the post instead ofcorresponding to the subject category of that post. In the illustratedembodiment, each post is labeled with the corresponding subject categorycolor by presenting black text in a white box positioned over a coloredbackground box filled with the respective subject category color. Inother embodiments, the subject category color may be associated with thepost by other methods, for example by displaying the actual text of thepost in that respective color, or by displaying the text directly over abackground of that color.

Still referring to FIG. 4a , the viewing user may choose to provide anopinion on the information posted by choosing a compliment from thecompliments menu 414. A written comment may also be posted by theviewing user on the posted information by choosing the comment button412 which will then open a text box 402.

If the viewing user would like to save a post, they can choose to fileby category 410. A variety of the same categories used to categorizeposts will appear within a drop down menu and by choosing a category theviewing user will automatically file the information to their PersonalBusiness Page, within the chosen categorical file. The ‘file’ menu shownin FIG. 6 illustrates examples of possible selectable categories thatcan be assigned by the viewing user when choosing to save or file a copyof the post. This ‘filing’ or storage option provides a tool by whichthe viewing user can save a copy of the post content for later revisitin order to review the posted information again or in greater detail.The stored information provides a tool by which the user canconveniently later re-access the subject matter of an expired post nolonger visible in the news feed, or revisit the subject matter of thepost before it has expired, but without having to browse, sort or filterthrough the news feed to find it.

Giving the viewing user the ability to assign their own categoryinformation for the content of the post, independent of any categorypreviously assigned in the original posting in the news feed, allows theviewing user's to personalize the categorization of their saved posts.

The system may be configured to copy the text content of the post intoan electronic document. The electronic document may be saved in a filedatabase 211 administered by the business or social network, whether aspart of the category database 210 or separate therefrom as shown withsolid and broken lines respective in FIG. 2, with the individual'spersonal or business page having a option for viewing a listing of thatuser's files that have been stored in the database. In anotherembodiment, during the process of choosing to file or save a post, theuser may be presented with the additional or alternative option ofdownloading the resulting file to local storage. The listing of storeduser file's on the user's personal or business page is preferably sortedaccording to the categories selected by the user during the filingprocess, thereby making it easier to find a particular post among a filelisting of significant length. During the filing process, the viewinguser may also be presented with the option of naming the file, or addinga note or comment that will be displayed with the file in the list, inorder to further ease the process of later selecting the file from amonga list of multiple files.

Where a post contains a link to a downloadable image file, video file,or document (e.g. word processing document, spreadsheet document, htmlpage, etc), the file option may present the ability to storing thedownloadable file in addition to, or instead of, an electronic documentcontaining the text matter of the news feed post. Where multiple fileformats are used to store the full contents and/or linked informationassociated with a post, the multiple files for that post may be listedin the file access list of the user's personal or business page, or asingle listing for that post may be operable to retrieve or view all theassociated files.

Upon selection of a file from the list of stored files on or accessiblefrom the user's personal or business page, the content of the storedfile may be pulled up for display within the web browser, either as partof or separate from the personal or business page displayed therein, orpulled up for viewing in a separate program, which may depend in part onthe file format in question. The file listing feature may alternativelyor additional provide for download of the stored file to a local storagedevice at the current location of the viewing user.

In addition to allowing later access to a newsfeed post that may haveexpired, and thus no longer be viewable in the news feed, or that may betime consuming to try and find within the news feed if still active, theautomated file saving option also provides a more convenient solution tothe prior art methods of saving news feed content, which involved one ormore of manually copying text and/or image content from a post andpasting and saving the same in an electronic document separate from theweb browser, ‘right clicking’ a hyperlink to a downloadable file to savea copy of the file, and manually following a hyperlink from within apost to copy or download material from the hyperlink destination.

A hyperlink or URL within a post may be copied along with other textmatter of the post into the stored file, thus allowing the user to lateraccess the hyperlink or URL and visit the linked website or download thelinked document or file via the hyperlink. In another embodiment, thefiling option may be arranged to only function on news feed postscontaining hyperlinks, and may simply store the hyperlinks rather thancreating one or more files with the post-content and/or theimage/video/text/etc. of the hyperlink destination. The hyperlinks maybe listed by category in a manner displayed on or accessible from theuser's personal or business page, much as described above for the filestoring embodiments.

FIG. 5, a flow diagram of an exemplary process for generating anddisplaying a central live news feed of information, is shown. Someexamples of information which can be shared and posted within thecentral Live News Feed are events, meetings, video, photos, links andthe like. At step 500 the subject user may choose to type a message intothe text box. At step 502, the subject user 101 b must categorize theirpost of information by subject. Each subject user or ‘user type’ whocontributes information to the Live News Feed automatically becomescategorized themselves based upon selections they will have made uponsigning up to become a member. Generally speaking, the User Typecategories are based upon, but not limited to, age, level or positionwithin a company, gender, languages spoken or the like. User Typecategories are stored in the Category Database.

At step 504, an active information link which connects two componentswithin the business or social network, may be attached to one or moreitems within the content of either a Central Live News Feed post 200 ora Personal Live News Feed 202 post. For example, the active linkcomponent 312 may attach an active link to the news item and an activelink will be formed when any two or more users 101 are mentioned in thepost. This enables the viewing user 101 a the ability to know whichusers within the business or social network may be associated with theinformation by way of the activities associated with the informationlink 504 or photograph/video link 506 or the like, viewable by holdingthe cursor over the link where a list of users 101 who have used thelink will be displayed.

Subject users may choose Sharing Options 508 for each post made toeither their Personal Live News Feed 115 or the Central Live News Feed110 at any point after step 502.

Such sharing options are shown in FIG. 4 during creation of a SubjectUser's post, and may include options for sharing the information beingposted through external networks or means (Twitter, Facebook, blogs,email) and sharing through the social or business network via avenuesother than news feed for which the post is being generated.

At step 510, an order is assigned to the news items. For example, thedisplay order component 308 may sort the news items according tochronological order at step 510. In various embodiments, the displayorder component 308 may assign the order of the news items according tocategories 502 chosen by the viewing user which are stored in theCategory Database 210 and the display order component 308 may applymultiple field sorts to the news items display based upon chronologicalorder by time and date, then by chosen category. For example, theviewing user 101 a may configure their preferences to display one ormore categories 404 either by subject type or user type, or acombination of both, to achieve a more specific live news feed result.The order of display will also take into consideration the date/time ofthe live news feed post was added to the live news feed, and will thenvary according to the viewing users chosen settings based upon thesubject they are seeking and the user they are interested in.

At step 511, the subject user 101 b has the option to re-post 403information being posted to the live news feed where it willautomatically appear in the central live news feed 110 at a later dateby choosing from a series of options, for example one day, 3 days, 1week and the like. The subject user may also re-post from the personallive feed 115 at any point and choose a timeframe where the post mayreappear in the central live news feed 110.

At step 512, the news items are displayed to viewing users 101 a throughthe central live news feed as indicated in FIG. 4a , the re-post option511 may format the activity list compiled in step 512 and display one ormore news items according to limits imposed on the scope of the viewersat step 508, the display order assigned at step 510 and the re-postoption assigned at step 511. Displaying the news items at step 512further includes displaying links attached to the news items at step 504and/or 506. For example, links attached by the informational linkcomponent 310 and/or the active link component 312 may also be displayedby the media generator 312. The activities analyzer 302 and themonitoring module 206 track the responses made by viewing users who maychoose to respond by choosing a compliment 414 or comment 412 (see FIG.4a ). Both the viewing user and subject user may choose sharing options408 if they wish to share any information posted to the Live News Feed,at any time. The news items may be displayed by the display engine/GUI208.

The above embodiments provide methods and systems for categorizing,colorizing, saving and visually filtering the view of the content, aswell as the appearance, of a live news feed, within a business or socialnetwork. The method can involve categorizing information, photos, videoand the like, prior to posting it within the live news feed. Eachcategory is associated with a color so that it becomes visuallydistinctive. The live news feed can be viewed in its entirety, by usertype, by subject category or a combination of categories. Categoryoptions include, but are not limited to, viewing live news feed posts byall users, posts by subject or by user type. Some examples of subjectcategories are products, feedback required, videos, video meetinginvitations, media articles, leadership opportunities and the like. Someexamples of user type categories are language, geographical location,position/level within the company etc. The viewing user may choosecategories which enables them to limit information which appears in thelive news feed by subject and by user type, which provides them withmore specific information however they also have the option of viewing‘all’ content of the live news feed. When ‘all’ content within the livenews feed is displayed, the viewing user can visually filter outinformation, not missing live news feed content that they may findrelevant. Both the viewing user and the subject user may file anyinformation posted to the Central Live News feed to their PersonalBusiness Page by choosing from a variety of categories by subject thatare also used to filter the live news feed with the business or socialnetwork.

Although the process for generating and displaying a news feed isdescribed as being comprised of various steps (e.g., type text into thetext box 500, choose a subject category 502, attaching informationallinks 504, attach photos or videos 506, choose share options 508,assigning an order 510, choose to re-post a news feed item 511,displaying news items 512, choose to file a news feed item 513), feweror more steps may comprise the process and still fall within the scopeof various embodiments.

Several embodiments are specifically illustrated and/or describedherein. However, it will be appreciated that modifications andvariations are covered by the above teachings and within the scope ofthe appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scopethereof. The live news feed posts may be filtered by subject type and/oruser type. Once the categorical filters are applied to the live newsfeed, content about subjects in which the viewing user is not interestedwill be filtered out and a colorized live news feed of categoriesremains. The viewing user 101 may have the ability to choose to shut offthe Color Component 300 at any point in time if it is preferred to viewthe chosen categories in black and white. Any of the elements associatedwith the live news feed may employ any of the desired functionality setforth hereinabove. Items selected for deletion from the live news feeddisplay list may be determined according to first in first out. Methodsteps described herein may be performed in alternative orders. Variousembodiments of the invention include logic stored on computer readablemedia, the logic configured to perform methods of the invention. Theexamples provided herein are exemplary and are not meant to beexclusive.

It will be appreciated that the above teachings concerning colorizedcategorization of news feed posts and filing or saving of posted orlinked content from such posts may be employed regardless of whether thenews feed is a public news feed available for viewing by any member ofthe public without needing to register with or log into the system, oris a limited-access central or personal news feed only accessible toregistered members of the social or business network. For example, abusiness or social network with one or more news feeds fed by enrolledmembers may have a public news feed where the posts from the registeredmembers can be viewed by the general public. The public news feed may becolorized by subject category and may even provide filtering tools foruse by the non-registered public viewers, and may include filing orsaving functionality to allow the user to download a file ofpost-related information for their own personal use without becoming aregistered member of the network. Other embodiments including a publicnews feed may instead limit availability of any filtering orfiling/saving tools only to its registered members.

Visual markers or indictors other than use of particular colorsassociated with post categories are also contemplated. For example, analternate embodiment may use the national flag of a user's residence orcitizenship as a user-type category marker to be displayed with eachnews feed post associated with said user.

In one embodiment, as the Subject User creates each live news feed postthey may apply and associate each post with more than one subjectcategory. If the Viewing User chooses to view the live news feed bySubject, for the example, the colors in which all posts are initiallydisplayed will be based upon Subject types, however if more than onesubject type applies such as a post containing ‘Photos’ (lets say photosare a red post) about company ‘Products’ (which may be a green post),the primary category of importance chosen by the company & Developerinvolved in administration and development of a particular network maybe that of ‘Products’, which will have this post appear in the colorassociated with ‘Products’ which is Green.

Alternatively, if the Viewing User were to be searching the Central LiveFeed for photos, then posts containing photos will appear but if theyare considered of secondary importance as a subject by the Developer,the posts may still appear in colors associated with a predeterminedgroups of Subject categories of greater importance but the Live NewsFeed posts displayed will be only that of posts which contain photoattachments or photos and the like.

User categories are may be automatically applied to each post based uponthe User type attributes of who created the post and they may beassociated with colors or symbols associated with the various levelswithin a company as an example, which are easily identifiable by theViewing User. If the viewing user were to search for posts by users whowere at one particular level within the company, then just live newsfeed posts made by those users will be displayed for the Viewing user.

The embodiments discussed herein are illustrative of the presentinvention. As these embodiments of the present invention are describedwith reference to illustrations, various modifications or adaptations ofthe methods and or specific structures described may become apparent tothose skilled in the art. All such modifications, adaptations orvariations that rely upon the teachings of the present invention, andthrough which these teachings have advanced the art, are considered tobe within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Hence thesedescriptions and drawings should not be considered in a limiting sense,as it is understood that the present invention is in no way limited toonly the embodiments illustrated.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for categorizing, and displayingcolorized news feed content in a news feed generated within a businessor social network environment, the method comprising: receivingcategorized news feed posts from respective subject users of thebusiness or social network, said categorized news feed posts eachincluding a respective user-dependent category assigned thereto by, orbased on a specific user-type of, the respective subject user, whereinthe respective subject user is categorized based on information providedat the time the subject user creates an account with the newsfeed systemsuch that a user of the newsfeed may sort newsfeeds based on thecategorical aspects of the subject user; generating a central news feedcontaining the received news feed posts; providing viewing access to thecentral news feed; receiving central news feed viewing preferences fromviewers of the central news feed; and based on said news feed viewingpreferences of each viewer, determining which of the news feed posts ofsaid central news feed should be displayed to said viewer based on theuser-dependent category associated with each news feed post; anddisplaying to said viewer only the news feed posts of said central newsfeed that were not filtered out based on the viewing preferences of saidviewer, wherein each and every different user-dependent category isassociated with a different respective color and content of each andevery categorized news feed post displayed to said viewer is accordinglydisplayed in, or simultaneously with, the respective color associatedwith the user-dependent category of said categorized news feed post. 2.The method of claim 1 wherein the user-dependent category assigned to atleast one news feed post is a user-type category into which the subjectuser was categorized based on said information provided at the time ofaccount creation.
 3. A non-transitory computer readable medium havingembodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processorfor performing the method according to claim
 1. 4. A method forreviewing categorized and colorized news feed content within a businessor social network environment, the method comprising: gaining access toa business or social network having a central news feed that containscategorized news feed posts from respective subject users of thebusiness or social network, each news feed post having been assigned auser-dependent category by, or based on a specific user-type of, therespective subject user, wherein the respective subject user iscategorized based on information provided at the time the subject usercreates an account with the newsfeed system such that a user of thenewsfeed may sort newsfeeds based on the categorical aspects of thesubject user; submitting central news feed viewing preferences for usein determining which of the news feed posts of said central news feedshould be displayed based on the user-dependent category associated witheach categorized news feed post; and viewing a filtered display of thecentral news feed that contains only categorized news feed posts of saidcentral news feed that were not filtered out based on the viewingpreferences, wherein each and every different user-dependent category isassociated with a different respective color and content of each andevery news feed post of the filtered display is accordingly displayedin, or simultaneously with, the respective color associated with theuser-dependent category of said news feed post.
 5. A method forcategorizing, and displaying news feed content in a news feed generatedwithin a business or social network environment, the method comprising:receiving categorized news feed posts from respective subject users ofthe business or social network, said categorized news feed posts eachincluding a respective user-dependent category assigned thereto by, orbased on a specific user-type of, the respective subject user, whereinthe respective subject user is categorized based on information providedat the time the subject user creates an account with the newsfeed systemsuch that a user of the newsfeed may sort newsfeeds based on thecategorical aspects of the subject user; generating a central news feedcontaining the received categorized news feed posts; and providingviewing access to the central news feed within which at least some ofcategorized said news feed posts are displayed to a viewing user;wherein each and every different user-dependent category is associatedwith a different respective category indicator and content of each andevery categorized news feed post displayed to said viewing user isaccordingly displayed simultaneously with the respective categoryindicator associated with the user-dependent category of saidcategorized news feed post.
 6. The method of claim 2 wherein the subjectuser is categorized by language spoken.
 7. The method of claim 2 whereinthe subject user is categorized by geographic location.
 8. The method ofclaim 2 wherein the subject user is categorized by occupationalposition.
 9. The method of claim 2 wherein the subject user iscategorized by educational background.
 10. The method of claim 2 whereinthe subject user is categorized by area of expertise.
 11. The method ofclaim 4 wherein the user-dependent category assigned to at least onenews feed post is a user-type category into which the subject user wascategorized based on said information provided at the time of accountcreation.
 12. A non-transitory computer readable medium having embodiedthereon a program, the program being executable by a processor forperforming the method according to claim
 4. 13. The method of claim 11wherein the subject user is categorized by language spoken.
 14. Themethod of claim 11 wherein the subject user is categorized by geographiclocation.
 15. The method of claim 11 wherein the subject user iscategorized by occupational position.
 16. The method of claim 11 whereinthe subject user is categorized by educational background.
 17. Themethod of claim 11 wherein the subject user is categorized by area ofexpertise.
 18. The method of claim 5 wherein the user-dependent categoryassigned to at least one news feed post is a user-type category intowhich the subject user was categorized based on said informationprovided at the time of account creation.
 19. A non-transitory computerreadable medium having embodied thereon a program, the program beingexecutable by a processor for performing the method according to claim5.
 20. The method of claim 18 wherein the subject user is categorized bylanguage spoken.
 21. The method of claim 18 wherein the subject user iscategorized by geographic location.
 22. The method of claim 18 whereinthe subject user is categorized by occupational position.
 23. The methodof claim 18 wherein the subject user is categorized by educationalbackground.
 24. The method of claim 18 wherein the subject user iscategorized by area of expertise.